France will not participate in the Winter Olympics in South Korea in February 2018 if the safety of its participants is not guaranteed, but Austria will continue to monitor the situation in North Korea and await a decision on whether Austrian athletes will not participate.
“However, if the situation worsens and the safety of the athletes is no longer guaranteed, we will not be going to South Korea,”said ÖOC President Karl Stoss on Friday at a press conference in Innsbruck on the occasion of the APA.
“We don’t expect things to go that far,”said Stoss.At this point in time, however, it is not yet possible to know how the security situation in February would turn out to be.
A plan B for the February Winter Olympics in South Korea is not in any case, the ÖOC president affirmed.If the security of the games were not guaranteed, they would simply not take place, he added.
During last week’s session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Peru’s capital Lima, IOC President Thomas Bach had tried to eliminate all security concerns and explained:”The position of the IOC is just as unchanged as our trust:” He has the firm belief in a diplomatic solution and peace “, the Tauberbischhofheimer continued.In Lima, the chairman of the OC, Lee Hee-beom, also pointed out that there was “no plan B”.
However, US President Donald Trump had not yet threatened North Korea with “total destruction”, as he did last Tuesday in his speech to the UN Security Council.Prior to this, there were constant military provocations from both countries, which were fired by several internationally condemned rocket tests of the regime of dictator Kim Jong-un.On Thursday, the United States considered tightening its sanctions against the communist brother state of democratic South Korea.The chances of a diplomatic solution to the conflict seem to be dwindling daily.